Modish venue Polar Bear plays host to Hull band Dead Hormones, as they prepare to launch the long-awaited EP this Thursday. Three years on since the band released their debut, the new songs on ‘Nothing, Nothing… Then Something,’ feel harder and aggressive with more attack.

Cover Design by Joe Johnson

You think you know the Dead Hormones but with each outing they appear to have charged ahead again, changing as they go. The cover design by Joe Johnson hints at the expansion of consciousness, I’d once found in the hazy blue light. With the exception of the title track, which has space and more time to breathe, that trip is all but gone, replaced by terse outbursts, directed at anyone within earshot.

With the high-pitched twang laying all over the mix, is it a case of a post-modern indie hangover or ironic alt rock revivalism? In our post-everything world, does genre mean anything more than a handy way, to market similar products?

Despite regretful words at the excess, songs like the 2 minute opener ‘If I Don’t Make it home‘, the self-importance of ‘Easy‘ and spiky honesty of ‘Leathered‘ suggest that the Dead Hormones are far from ready to leave the party behind.

The EP’s title ‘ Nothing, Nothing… Then Something‘ released through Warren Records, does indeed refer to the gap since their last release, but also to some choice bedtime reading: namely Matt Haig’s The Humans. The contemporary author’s comic sci-fi tale of humanity and meaning, having inspired more than a cursory interest from the Dead Hormones’ Jacob Tillison.

‘ I sort of related to this as everything coming to be and how existence just came from nothing…when we wrote these songs it kind of seemed like a step in the right direction.’

The literary nod gives me hope for the future direction of the band. For me – being the perennial nostalgic – Dead Hormones are at their best when they are invoking the spirits not downing them, but no doubt the festival crowds will love the Dead Hormones’ new found dirt and rebellion, all the more.